Connor becomes Acting NUM when Steph is uncharacteristically late for the morning shift. Anxiety mounts as the morning wears on. Ben and Bron meanwhile, arrive on the scene of a terrible car smash to discover with horror that Steph is the critically injured driver of one of the cars. Bron is forced to take command of on-site medical assistance as Ben becomes paralysed by fear and anguish. His anger erupts in violence against the bewildered drunken driver of the other car and he has to be pulled off by the arresting police. Relieved by the Police Rescue Squad and a second team of paramedics, Ben sits with his wife, coaxing her to remain conscious, urging her to hang on

Alex Richards is free from the rubble. She is unconscious, suffering head injuries and in urgent need of surgery. Luke and John Madsen perform a craniotomy to remove a haematoma, and although Alex survives the operation she suffers a respiratory arrest on the Ward. Steph manages to stabilise her but she goes into a coma. Her prognosis is not good and her mother, Di, is distraught. Luke and Madsen are operating on Rob when the word comes through he is the one responsible for setting the bombs. Luke has just heard of Alex's decline and is so angry he does not care whether Rob lives or dies. But he learns a lesson in professionalism from Madsen. Unknown to all of them, Rob left a ticking bomb on the Ward when he went into surgery. He is prepared to lose his life for the sake of his vendetta. Jared is nursing Mrs Price who is frantic about her two missing children, Caitlin and Rowen. When news comes through the kids have been located, Jared suggest Bosco might go over to the site to entertain and distract the kids while the rescue workers try to free them. Bosco laughs in Jared's face and says he has no intention of putting his life in danger and says he is going home. Over at the Medical Centre, Bron and Ben are just at about their wit's end trying to calm Rowen and Caitlin, when out of nowhere (it seems) a clown appears. Bosco calms the kids and he finally has an audience who appreciates his jokes. In the middle of the chaos, Mitch proposes to Rose. It never occurred to him she might want time to consider his proposal. In fact, there are a few delicate matters concerning his past that she wants to discuss before she will give him a genuine answer. Tension levels on the Ward rise even higher when it is learnt Rob is being sent back to Ward 17 after surgery. When Alex's distraught mother Di discovers the man responsible for the bomb is on the Ward after she loses control. She barges into Robs room and starts to attack him. AS far as she is concerned, it is totally unfair for him to live through when it looks like her daughter is dying. Terri has to throw herself in front of Rob to defend him. It is then he tells Terri there is one more bomb...

All Saints is thrown into emergency status when an explosion creates chaos and carnage. The disaster becomes personal when the staff realise that Von is missing. Steph has to put aside her fears about her own pregnancy while Ben and Bron fight to save the life of a pregnant woman and her unborn child.

There is an atmosphere of excitement on the Ward as everyone prepares for the Hospital Fundraiser Ball. Both Mitch and Von deny having bought Terri's ball dress. Nervous and excited, Terri leaves work early to get ready for the ball.

Luke, Bron, and Ben must overcome their personal differences in a cliff-side battle to save a young man's life. Von believes a young male patient with cancer needs help from a different kind of specialist when she determines he is mimicking symptoms to get attention from his parents who are proccupied with his cancer-fighting sister. Mitch cares for a married woman who wants to keep her diagnosis from her husband. A clumsy painter keeps the staff on their toes. Connor rides a rollercoaster as he tries to follow the tangled personal lives of a patient and her husband. Jodi shares some startling news prompting Connor to tell Bron the truth about his feelings for her.

Bron is given a glimpse of what her future could be like with Luke when surgeon John Madsen's wife and brother are admitted to the Ward following an incriminating incident. Regina resorts to radical and desperate means to save a charming, young Irishman from deportation. The Ward is in fierce competition as they prepare for battle in the annual All Saints fundraising bed race!

Terri's patience is tried to the limit by the demands of an aging and embittered TV star who has suffered terrible facial scarring from an acid attack. Pregnant and overtired, Steph's worst nightmare looms large when she starts to bleed and suffer severe stomach cramps. Cold-shouldered by Bron, Luke accepts a drinks invitation from a glamorous patient and is shocked by a proposal she has for him. Mitch is concerned Regina is becoming too fixated on her wedding plans.

Steph steps into Terri's shoes as Nursing Unit Manager but alienates her colleagues with her demanding behaviour. Bron uncovers the shocking family secret that drove sisters apart 23 years ago when the sister of a brain-damaged patient insists her sister be allowed to die so she can receive an insurance payout. Luke is convinced his good relationship with Madsen is over for good when he risks a patient's safety by operating with an injured hand. Mitch and Kylie deal with a hypochondriac while Connor learns a lesson of the heart.

Bron and Ben's relationship takes on new meaning when they are trapped in a life and death situation. A busy schedule and a patient with something to hide causes Kylie to make a mistake. Mitch's impending fatherhood impacts on his treatment of a pregnant woman. Connor feels obliged to lay down the law with Jodi and a man's piercing fetish fascinates the staff.

Nursing Unit Manager Cynthia Murdoch has devoted the past 25 years of her life to the Sacred Heart Rehabilitation Unit attached to All Saints. But, despite her superhuman efforts, the place is rundown, understaffed, last on the queue for funds and generally under continual pressure from the administration.

Terri's trial begins. Prosecution barrister Marion Lord tells the Jury Terri murdered Neil Phillips to keep their love affair secret. Terri is horrified Lord should believe she is a cold-blooded killer. Her barrister Steve Coulter assures her all that matters is what the Jury believe at the end of the trial.

The final day of Terri's trial begins. She is horrified as prosecution barrister Marion Lord continues to paint her as some fallen woman. The nosy neighbour Gilda gives the Jury the impression Terri was not only having an affair with Neil Phillips but also had another lover, namely Mitch.

Ward 17 is notified it is being closed down in favour of more specialised wards. Understandably the staff, and Terri in particular, are horrified to learn the team is to be split up. Claudia MacKenzie takes over from Stan Ridgeway as hospital CEO and despite all pleas to reconsider, keeps her eyes firmly on the bottom line — hospitals are a business like any other.

The staff of Ward 17 fight desperately to save the life of a sixteen-year-old boy suffering from a rare blood disorder. The situation intensifies when he begins to haemorrhage internally and Mitch doesn't think he can stop the bleeding. Two high school friends end up on the ward after mixing an ecstasy tablet with too much booze at their high-school reunion. Following Steph's funeral, Steph's mother returns to Ward 17 to see where her daughter worked and becomes involved with the staff and patients. Meanwhile, Luke bonds with a young woman with Downs Syndrome, and Bron grows concerned for Ben when she see how he is coping with Steph's death.

Bron is nurse in charge for the night shift on Ward 17. Von isn't too impressed when Bron tries to delegate all the work to her and agency nurse Amanda but Bron is forced to take on responsibility for an elderly nun. Sister Frances is desperately confused, constantly asking for the nurses to contact another Sister who, Bron learns, died twenty years ago.

The big day has finally arrived for Mitch and Rose but despite the best efforts of the Ward 17 staff, Mitch becomes involved with a patient suffering chronic pain as a result of the condition Ankylosing Spondylitis. The young man, Scott, has just about given up but Mitch has a radical idea on how to break the pain cycle. Connor is less than impressed to learn Mitch intends to bring dope onto the ward, particularly when he has worked so hard to be a good NUM. Mitch finds an unlikely ally in treating Scott, when Rose takes time out of her wedding day preparations to lend a hand.

Bron and Ben rescue Patti Burke from a snap freezer. The woman had gone in to save her friend Jill, who appears to have wanted to commit suicide, and in so doing Patti ended up bound to her friend's hand. Unable to separate Patti from her dead friend, Ben and Bron have to wait until the shelf to which Jill is attached, is cut away. Then, Patti (still attached to the corpse) is able to be taken to All Saints. It is up to Luke, with Kylie now as his observer, to separate the two women surgically. But the scars left on Patti are not just physical. Emotionally, she carries a guilt, which goes deeper than mere survivor's guilt. Once she admits to Jared she and Jill were lovers, we sense she will be able to heal.

Between heavy labour pains, Rose shocks Mitch by demanding to know what caused his break-up with Terri more than a decade ago. The sad truth is he really doesn't know the answer. When Rose suffers complications, Mitch and Terri are left holding the baby. Mitch decides it's time to confront Terri and asks her what went wrong with their love affair. Is she finally ready to tell the truth? Meanwhile, Ben and Bron bring in a patient suffering from progressive dementia, Jared rejects Kylie's generous gift, and Luke is called on to make good on an old debt.

Terri leaves the Community House and returns to Ward 17. She has healed somewhat since the death of Neil Phillips a week ago, but Terri knows a return to her usual world will be a trying time. Von gives her all the support she can, but so far Terri's ordeal is not general knowledge and Mitch has decided to make himself scarce. Terri gets stuck into office work, avoiding contact with the patients and awkwardly deflecting the friendly inquiries of her colleagues. Meanwhile, rumours are circulating about a rape and fatal stabbing.

Mitch goes to great personal and professional lengths to diagnose the illness of an aspiring Olympic athlete who accuses him of molesting her. Bron learns an important lesson about herself while dealing with a difficult situation. Von wants a dying patient to divorce her loving husband — but for whose benefit? A hungry street kid pays a visit to Ward 17 and brings some joy to a lonely, old man. Ben and Bron are called out to the site of a fatal motorcycle accident where Bron finds herself searching for the victim's decapitated head.

Terri endeavours to put the horror of Neil Phillips' death behind her and get on with her life. She has even decided to move back to her old flat, after living in the Sisters' Community House.

As Luke faces the internal investigation into his supposed negligence, he is forced to defend himself, putting his career and relationship with Bron on the line. Ben attends the attempted suicide of a mysterious young man. Will the truth of his haunted psyche be revealed before it's too late? Mitch goes into battle against the hospital authorities when patient's relatives are forced to sleep in the car park due to lack of funds.

When Ben and Bron answer a cry for help they find a woman, Lynette Newman, living in a sealed flat, under rigidly sterile conditions. A fall has given Lynette head injuries and she is transferred to All Saints and ultimately to Ward 17. She displays a paranoid fear of being there, and what appears to be a obsessive/compulsive disorder. Connor, currently Acting NUM, wants Lynette transferred to the Psych unit. Mitch suspects there is more to it and insists Lynette remain on the ward.

On an inspection tour of the hospital, Professor Caroline Edgewater and her grand-daughter Phoebe are pleased to encounter Mitch, Caroline's former student and a friend to both of them. Mitch was a close friend of Caroline's daughter Sarah, who died of cancer when Phoebe was little and he was emotional support to all of them during the difficult months of her illness. Time and tyranny of distance have meant they have lost touch but Phoebe and Mitch quickly fall back in to their former affectionate, teasing relationship.

Terri takes on Claudia McKenzie, the hospital's new CEO, as the ward's closure becomes a reality and Terri finds herself being used by the hospital administation in PR exercise against the striking nurses.